Safely announces one billion family checks, new features

Safely, the digital parenting arm of Location Labs, today announced that they’ve powered more than one billion family location checks since its debut. Spread across millions of phone on AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile, the locates help parents keep an eye on what their kids are doing with their phone and what they are up to. For parents, the app also helps to lead into discussions on topics like texting while driving, sexting, and/or cyberbullying.

Today sees Safely unveiling a new initiative for T-Mobile customers called Family Check-In. And just like it sounds, it helps to keep an eye on where children are and whether they are really at school when they say they are. It’s as simple as checking in on Facebook , Gowalla, or Foursquare and will be included in T-Mobile’s FamilyWhere service.

Safely, a Division of Location Labs, Hits One Billion Locates on Monetized Family Safety Services; Introduces Free Check-In Service

Emeryville, Calif. January 31, 2011 – Safely, a division of Location Labs, today announced that its premium Safely Family Locator has enabled more than one billion family safety location checks since inception. These “locates” have been initiated by Family Locator subscribers across millions of child phones on three Tier 1 US wireless carriers. Having achieved this milestone, Safely now introduces Family Check-In, the newest offering in its suite of digital parenting tools.

The service is first launching in partnership with T-Mobile USA, Inc. under the name “FamilyWhere Check In” and is available as a free download in the Android Market, complementing the T-Mobile FamilyWhere service and expanding the Safely Family Locator platform.

“One billion premium locates reinforces family safety and security as the most primal and high value use case for location-based services,” said Tasso Roumeliotis, CEO of Safely and Location Labs. “By adding a free component to the Safely Family Locator platform via Family Check-In, we raise awareness of our locator services and bring immediate value to T-Mobile customers.”

Safely Family Locator is the flagship in Safely’s suite of premium digital parenting services and is distributed in partnership with wireless carriers. Family Check-In expands the functionality of Safely Family Locator with a free mobile app component that lets kids easily show parents that they arrived at the library or a friend’s house with a location-verified map.

With 75% of 12-17 years olds having cell phones, kids are the new mobile power users. Many parents require their kids to check in and parents already proactively locate their kids with great frequency (see infographic). Family Check-In complements existing behavior since kids are already checking in via social apps.

“We are excited to launch the T-Mobile FamilyWhere Check In with Safely,” said Torrie Dorrell, Vice President of Applications, Content and Games, T-Mobile USA. “It is yet another way T-Mobile is enhancing our customers’ lives and addressing their needs with a valuable free service that introduces the benefits of location sharing to families.”

T-Mobile FamilyWhere Check In is available for free in the Android Market as part of the T-Mobile FamilyWhere app.

Link on Safely.com to be published before this press release is issued

About Safely and Location Labs
Established in 2011, Safely is a division of Location Labs and provides services that enhance the personal safety and security of millions of families. Nearly a dozen Tier 1 wireless carrier services are powered by Safely, helping family members to protect and keep tabs on each other through mobile alerts and online activity reports.

The Safely suite of digital parenting technologies includes: Family Locator, a mobile location service available as AT&T FamilyMap, Sprint Family Locator and T-Mobile FamilyWhere; Drive Safe, the only carrier-grade, patent-pending safe-driving service on the market, available as Sprint DriveFirst and T-Mobile DriveSmart Plus; Phone Controls, the most advanced mobile phone controls and usage analytics service, available as Sprint Mobile Controls; and Safely Social Monitor, an online service that helps parents stay informed about kids’ social network activities.

Location Labs has raised $26MM in venture financing from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, BlueRun Ventures (formerly Nokia Venture Partners), QUALCOMM Ventures, Intel Capital, and Mitsui Ventures and was named to Inc.’s 500/5000 list of America’s Fastest Growing Private Companies in both 2010 and 2011. The company is headquartered in Emeryville, California and operates globally in the US, Europe, and India. For more information: http://www.Safely.com andhttp://www.LocationLabs.com.

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Scott has been running AndroidGuys since 2007 and loves nothing more than reading up on the latest smartphone rumors. His other mobile efforts can be found on Android Update (CNET) where he covers Google's mobile platform.